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Spent the day working with Martin Yan

Did a knife skills class today with Martin Yan. He was a very entertaining guy. I definitely felt like I was in the middle of an episode of Yan Can Cook. All the schtick that you'd see on TV was on full display. He really can break down a chicken in 18 seconds. It wasn't the cleanest, of course, but it was quite a spectacle. The students loved it.

I never realized it until later in life but that guy was my knife skill hero growing up. Used to watch his show as a kid and always marveled at how he wielded a knife so skillfully with speed and grace. Thinking "That's awesome, I wish I could be that fast with a knife" Fast forward 10 years to my first job with a knife in my hand. The sous chef is teaching me how to dice an onion and chop herbs etc... I pick up the knife and was able to just do it like I had a 5 year head start. He says, "you sure you haven't done this before?" Then I said, "Well I used to watch Yan Can Cook a lot growing up??.." He says something like, "Yeah that guy's awesome!!" Thanks Yan! Wan't proof? watch any video where I'm chopping ginger, garlic or rapid firing on the herbs. Got it from Yan.

It was a cool class. Hands on. He demoed the techniques and they tried to copy him. We only had ten students so they got lots of individual attention from us. It's funny that you mention it. He was my knife skill hero when I was growing up too. I was joking with him about it about how I used to watch him when I was little and I picked up my first knife skills from him. He actually used one of my knives as a demonstration piece on differences between western and eastern cutlery. It was very funny, he turned to us and said I need the very sharpest knife you have in the kitchen for my demonstration. Every one of the chefs just turned and looked at me and one said, "um Mike, you want to take care of that?" He proceeded to use newspaper and paper towels to illustrate sharpness. Mine performed just fine.

My culinary school class got to spend 2 weeks in China on a culinary tour led by Martin. I worked for 6 months to get that arranged and had to miss it because, I started a new job that week. The whole entire class went and I got stuck in class all by myself for 2 weeks. showed up everyday and sat there until my time was up. My chef CEC Bill Sy is a good friend of Martin's and one day he showed up and they had a chicken de-boning competition. There was chicken everywhere, on the ceiling, the floor , the walls and all the kids in the front row. Couldn't believe no one lost a finger. Martin 16 seconds and Bill 17 seconds. They are both badass.

I haven't lived the life I wanted, just the lives I needed too at the time.